november 26 2024
No technical problems, unlike the previous session, with a course that even started slightly early!
In this session, a Rook endgame that occurred several times with a slight detail each time that made the difference.
To follow, the rest of the exercises with, among others, a firework by Slumstrup Nielsen.
Today's game sees a Master of Strategy engage in a high-flying tactical battle, aided by a worthy opponent (you're in for a treat!).
Today's fairies is quite dense, with a few nuggets that need to be carefully dissected.
The next session will be held on 4 January.
Happy reading and happy feasting to you all.
Master's words
‘She finished her studies, but her studies finished her‘ ("To Catch A Thief"). Not so: Grace Kelly's kiss outside the bedroom door is too impolite not to be honest. ’https://youtu.be/9tQFJVixsQ8 But if need be, other earlier and more classic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knCHJNa0hUI
‘The man wants the woman to be gentle, but the woman, like the cat, is by nature nothing less than gentle, however clever she may be at giving herself the appearance of gentleness’ (F. Nietzsche). Please also reread Guitry's phrase here https://lecoursdumaitre.e-monsite.com/pages/cours/cat-2022/1-novembre-2022.html
Idleness, be it ‘mother of all vices’ or ‘mother of philosophy’, is one of the few threats that has never tempted me. Sorry, that's not a quote, just an instant thought.
"Novels are always about kings marrying shepherdesses, never about queens marrying shepherds." (Fernandel in "Le fruit défendu", 1952).
"Contact with people wears me out. I just can't understand how businessmen, politicians and shopkeepers manage to see so many people without dying." (E.M. Cioran).
"There is some nonsense that only intellectuals can believe" (G. Orwell).
"There are two paths open to you in life, one leading to the ideal, the other to death. You see, right now you're still free to jump onto the first. Before laziness forces you onto the other." (Fr. Schiller).
"In your job as a journalist, do you get stage fright? -- Never, because stage fright comes with talent’ (Christine Kelly, inspired by Sarah Bernhardt).
"This is the final thing, the midnight blues" (Snowy White, endgames amateur !). And also "fine old" ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWB2alXccWg
Two practical examples of R+2P / R+P endgames on the theme ‘chi va piano va sano’. The defensive Rook must know how to wait for its pawn. If it moves too far forward, it will have to move back and paradoxically the R-P pair will be late! I haven't read an author who emphasises this essential notion. But I'm probably inattentive. For lack of familiarity with it, the P. Nikolić-Kortchnoï 1984, M. Gurevich-Rechlis 1989, Vaganian-Schlosser 1994 and Topalov-Kasparov 1996 games, among many others, were lost. And Ribli-Kortchnoi 1981 was not won. Sometimes it's the King who has to wait for his pawn, as in Bacrot-Robson 2011. https://lecoursdumaitre.e-monsite.com/pages/cours/cat-2019/26-novembre-2019.html
You are asked to find a square for the Rook on the 6th row. There are two good squares and four bad ones: make the right choice. Then another case: the Rook has only one good square; change the position of the black ‘d’ pawn slightly, the bad square becomes good, the good square becomes bad!
Have you come across a phenomenon like this? A black pawn on d5 makes Black win, regardless of the move. Move it to d3, and it's a draw whatever the move. Finally, on d4, it's a ‘ZZ’: Black only wins with White's move.
Mandler shows us a fairly easy AB-BA in twins, then a world composition champion regales us, in a more affordable way than usual.
Exercises for January: a missed save between two Argentinians, another Rooks endgame that could well resemble a ZZ (‘reciprocal zugzwang’). A festival in which the Knight and the Bishop compete for the prize of the most heroic, and finally another rescue with Rook and Knight against Queen and Knight.
Today's game shows us a very great player in a style that we are not familiar with, as in https://lecoursdumaitre.e-monsite.com/pages/cours/cat-2003/7-janvier-2003.html The two main mistakes in the game were pointed out on a media site in 2016. Although the commentary remains easily searchable, no remark has been made on it in 8 years.
Training: a complete rosette in the first 2#, then tries in the 3rd, 5th, 8th, 9th, 10th & 12th. The two 3# are spectacular, and the second also has some model mates. The 7# shows us a ‘series’ Indian double in a particularly economical form.
The 2# helpmates are fun, one easy and one harderer. Nice mates in the first 3# helpmate. Who's going to mate in the second one? Very nice selfmate in 2, curious movements of the King in the 3# selfmate. We leave the solution of the 5 moves, which is not easy.
News: our friend Gady Costeff has performed the Babson task (the quadruple promotion in echo) in a study, 40 years after Leonid Yarosch's performance of a direct mate in 4 moves. But with two defects: the position is illegal and it's Black to move. In addition, there is a promoted knight on the diagram. He himself tells us that he has had this version for several years, and has been trying to improve it ever since. Will he succeed for the fiftieth anniversary of the Yarosch problem?
The same Costeff has just published a book to mark the 100th anniversary of FIDE (‘Fédération Internationale des Echecs’, in French), founded in Paris in 1924 by Pierre Vincent. The aim is to present an artistic study (with a different author) for each year of this period. The idea came from our friend Marjan Kovačević, President of the WFCC (FIDE's equivalent for composition). I had prepared 100 studies myself, after a lot of ‘hard work’ (as Costeff put it), from which he drew a lot of inspiration. Some of his studies are better than mine, others are not, or are less enjoyable, but... that's life. Several diagrams illustrate each study, so the book can be read without a chessboard on the plane, train or bus.
Enjoy your meal. Wesołych Świąt Bożego Narodzenia.
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